Controlling the image of the other and of self

Self-representation = power

• Dominant class vs. subordinate class(es)*
  One class controls the representation of other classes: the former becomes dominant and the latter ones are subordinate: (masters/servants; men/women in more traditional societies; ethnic, religious and/or linguistic groups).
  
  The subordinate class has no control over its own image, nor can it put forth a representation of the dominant class, except in its own environment (marginal cultures). The dominant class has total control over its own self-representation.
  
  The Civil Rights movement, which established the ideological platform for all other liberation movements in this country, fought for the power (not the right, the power) of self representation. They were followed by (in no precise order): women and the feminist movement; American Indian Movement -- AIM; gay rights -- Stonewall riots; Puerto Rican.
   
• Social harmony
  One or more classes have sufficient power to produce self-representations and representations of the others; in each class the distance between self-representation and received representation (being represented by others) is minimal.
   
• Social unrest, conflict, civil war
  The dominant class suppresses with various means, including violence, self-representation of the subordinate class(es). In response the subordinate class fights for that power; the distance between self-representation ("we are good") and passive representation ("you are evil") is wide to various degrees.

*The term "class" can be replaced by the recently introduced and discussed term tribe.

At the beginning of the course we analyzed texts produced by the dominant class and, consequently, the representation of Italians from that point of view. It was a representation imposed on the entire society and imposed on Italian themselves.

Often, subordinate classes end up internalizing that representation, developing collective negative self image with lack of self esteem and self worth.

Son of Italy is the first text that contains self representation. It is interesting to note that this is an extreme case of autobiography: the vicissitudes narrated by Pascal are initially limited to a very small group of people, completely removed from a larger community, and deprived of collective identity. After the break up of the gang, Pascal is even more isolated. His story is certainly not that of the rest of the community. Rather, it takes place only within the physical and psychological space of his identity and personal, individual consciousness.

These limitations notwithstanding, we immediately see the difference between the two perspectives. Symbolically, Pascal represents the collective fight of all the subordinate classes for the power of self representation. His effort to have his poems published is exactly that: the unconscious confirmation that the power of self representation is what all collective struggles are about.